The Weekly Travel News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

Hyatt takes Suite Upgrades seriously, generally speaking the representative will put you on hold so they can confirm with the hotel. In the off chance that the hotel does not honor that upgrade upon check-in, good things can still happen, just see FQF’s account.

Miles and Points:

Frequent Miler and a whole slew of others are covering a United Airlines Prepaid Card. It will be a partnership with Netspend, which gives us an idea of how it will play with manufacturing spend. But there is so much more that is still unclear.

You have by now–I hope–no doubt heard that Costco no longer accepts American Express. In fact it is now a Costco Visa world. While I shed some tears, as I got a ton of spend on my American Express Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Business card at Costco over the past years, I also look positively to the future. In that vain, there are winners and losers–as in any situation.

Background

American Express, the long time Costco partner, recently lost that partnership to Citibank and Visa. The details of how that happen, to this day are a bit obscure. Gary Leff has an account, Long story short, it sounds to me like Costco treated this like any other business transaction–like procuring ketchup–and American Express expected more loyalty from a long time partner. The fact is, Costco is a pretty open book business. In fact, this article reports that the general rule is to only mark up 15% or less. I remember vaguely that 8% was the rule in some cases. The fact remains, American Express lost a great partner that had a huge following, and Citigroup and Visa won that.

But Did They?

Citigroup has a great credit card line up for Costco. In fact, Frequent Miler did the analysis after asking whether The Costco Anywhere Visa was the best cashback card, bar none. After a brief look, it is quite enticing:

Now, you should definitely check FrequentMiler’s link out, but I’ll share with you – he doesn’t think this Costco Anywhere card is the best cashback card. Neither do I, but, his conclusion and my conclusion are different–thus why you should check out his link.

The Real Winner of Costco Visa

While this should have been clearly apparent on day one of Costco Visa, it wasn’t, to me. Perhaps I was still in denial about not being able to use my AMEX SPG Business card–after all, SPG points are awfully nice. Or perhaps I was just trying to re-calibrate to the new Visa world. But luckily, a small credit card issuer invested in a billboard to help me see that even without the Costco Anywhere card, I too was a winner!

But to help point out even more what Chase is doing, just take a look at their Freedom 5x categories for the remainder of the year:

You see, Chase, in their wisdom, saw Citi’s potential winner’s folly (H/T View From the Wing), as a huge win. They changed their Chase Freedom’s rotating 5% cashback–or if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink, 5x Ultimate Rewards Points–for the remaining quarters of the year, to include Warehouse Clubs. They are advertising heavily–reference graphic above. In short, Chase sees the amazing hand that they have been dealt, and are leveraging it mightily.

Wrapping Up

American Express lost. Citibank and Visa won–in theory. But I would propose that Chase is the true winner.

Have you gotten the Citi Costco Anywhere Visa? Or used your Chase Freedom at Costco yet? Who do you think the winner is?

The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

Kathy, who writes Will Run for Miles learned something interesting. Secret Flying, whom I think we have all noticed as a new kid on the street, over the past year, seems to copy other fare deal sites. The positive of this is, that Kathy highlights other original sources of airfare deals – ones that I’ll be watching, and you should too.

Ed asks: Should AirBNB Be illegal? I’ve never stayed an an AirBNB, but I have friends that feel they are the best thing since sliced bread. The thing I hate most about this situation is the fact that most conflicts are resolved with a middle ground. Hopefully AirBNB and New York State can find that.

Its probably too soon to tell what the impact will be, but, I think this graphic says a lot:

Brexit Results

Miles and Points:

Gary Leff shares the results of a federal government study on frequent flyer programs. The key take-away is that the government is taking notice of these “no notice changes,” and hopefully they will put some teeth behind the enforcement, that notice must be given.

Further to the point – FrequentMiler analyzes the new Costco Visa – it looks enticing! That said, his conclusion is the same one I had come to some time ago, when I received word that my Fidelity AMEX was moving to a Fidelity Visa (it’s almost like they planned this!).

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